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Been a member for a while, got the patch, need t osew it on, etc. etc...
BUT, I picked up a new (to me) bike on Saturday. While it's not really a candidate for cafe'ing (I know, people have done it, but I probably won't) it's still a nice old bike with remarkebly lots of get up and go...
I introduce my 1977 Honda GL1000...Goldwing at it's finest
It actually has GL1100 carbs on it as of right now. the second owner decided to install them. the third owner, however purchased GL1000 carbs on e-bay, now I just need to get them rebuilt and installed so that the bike runs better in the lower gears....this thing LOVES the higher gears, and man does the shaft drive lead to extreme acceleration...this is the largest bike I've ever owned, so it's taking some getting used to, that's for sure.
Oh yeah, I must explain the fairing before the questions start coming in.
The 3rd owner purchased it on e-bay as well. the ad stated "one small crack" the photos didn't show that the entire screen had been shattered and reglued back together. he put it on the bike just to be funny. I actually like the look of it, so I'm planning on sanding it down a bit, then painting it red to match the bike. It also came with 2 sets of luggage. One is 1977 original clamshells....YELLOW...need to paint those too, I guess. the other were black, and newer, so modification to the mounting hardware is necessary.
These old Wings tend to start hard because there's really no way to prime the carbs. The carb bowls don't hold a lot of gas, so after sitting even for a couple days, they carbs get pretty dry inside. Then it takes the low flow fuel pump a bit to pump enough gas into the carbs to get the bike to fire up. There are electric fuel pump upgrade options, pretty easy to do but kind of hard to find a pump small enough to hide in the shelters. With an electric pump you can prime the carbs pretty easy just by wiring the pump to turn on with the key and give it a couple seconds to do its work before hitting the start button.
Oh, and if you don't know for sure when the timing belts were replaced on her I strongly recommend doing those! It's not a horrible job if you have a good manual at your side, and you don't want one of those belts to break!!!!
Thanks for the information. THe previous owner had an electric fuel pump installed already, so that's taken care of. As far as teh belts, I'm taking her in for inspection on Monday, and asked that they basically give it a good lookover to make sure fluids are good, belts, etc.
How difficult is it to rebuild the carbs on one of these. The bike has 1100 carbs on it now, but I have a 1000 carb to put on it. of course, it needs rebuilt first.
The carbs are pretty difficult, no lie. When you go to rebuild them get your kits from Randakk (http://www.randakks.com/), his kits come with bits that the others don't, and you can get a video with them for a bit more $$$ that walks you through step by step. The timing belts are under the long oval cover on the front of the engine (behind the radiator kind of) and take a bit of work to get to, and also typically won't show wear before breaking. That's why I suggested if you don't know for sure when they were done to do them, if one breaks you're looking at a lot of motor work!!!!
One other thing to check out on it is the main fuse behind the side cover over the battery. If it's not been converted from the really old style that came on these I'd suggest cutting out that fuse and soldering in a modern blade style 30 amp. The little fuse strips that came as the main fuse are hard to find and if you blow one on the side of the road you're going to be kind of stuck.
wow, thanks for the advice. The local Honda dealer quoted me $350 to rebuild and install the proper carbs...would it be worth it, rather than take the chance of f'ing it up on my own?
The kits will hit you in the ballpark of a hundy, with the time involved in cleaning and rebuilding, 350 doesn't sound horrible. These carbs are pretty complicated and easy to pooch from what I've seen and heard, so if don't want to chance it...
carbs are scary as hell at first. Just take it slow, do one carb at a time, and have a CLEAN BIG table to lay everything down on. The cost of the shop is reasonable, but its good to be able to know every corner of your bike and how to fix it when your out on the road.
and lord i must say... That bike... is fucking spotless.
Its simply beautiful.
and who gives a shit if its hard to start... its 32 years old mind you
good luck with that thing- If i had one id ride the hell out of it
If you do decide to take the carbs on yourself, make sure you keep parts from each carb separated. The slides are machined for each carb, and the springs for the slides tend to break in slightly different per carb, etc etc etc... You don't want to mix up the carb parts though.
If you aren't carb experienced take it REALLY slow. I won't hesitate to tear into a rack of most carbs, but these GL carbs are a different animal. Take your time and maybe even snap digital pics along the way so you have a visual reference of how things are supposed to look and you shouldn't have a problem.
Also, check out www.nakedgoldwings.com/forum for a lot of really knowledgeable people with these old beasts.
Good point....my wife is 30, and she's more difficult to get started. Latest issues...we had a minor flood last Wednesday. Bike hasn't started since then. I had an appointment to get it serviced and inspected yesterday, and well....couldn't make it. My stepfather and I have been trying everything we can without taking much apart, but it's being extra stubborn. It'll fire, then die a few seconds later. I noticed that when I pull the throttle, the right rear carb will leak fuel. We think that the electronic fuel pump that one of the previous owners installed is actually making things worse, combined with the 1100 carbs on the bike. When I mentioned the incorrect carb problem with the dealer, they wondered what they had done with the vacuum line...I can only respond "no clue." The bike itself was moved from the yard before water reached the engine itself, so this starting propblem is a mystery to us.
Check to see if you have water sitting down around the spark plugs. There are drain holes for these sockets that get plugged easily when sitting in the rain. One drain for each plug that come out the bottom between the head pipes. Look there first. The fuel leakage is likely just the electric pump overfilling the carbs because it's not burning any gas.
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Nice find - would love to have one myself.
